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RR DONNELLEY LPGA FOUNDERS CUP

March 18, 2011

Juli Inkster

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

THE MODERATOR: Juli, thanks for coming in. Good round today. 4-under 68. Can you tell me how you feel going into the weekend and a little bit about your round?
JULI INKSTER: Well, you know, I played pretty good. I played pretty solid. You know, I missed one, I think three or four-footer for birdie, but I drove the ball well, which is what you gotta do out here. And I hit some good irons. So I played pretty consistent. I was happy with the way I played.
THE MODERATOR: Any questions?

Q. (Indiscernible).
JULI INKSTER: I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

Q. I know that you had a few chances to break that record of oldest winner on Tour. How many times has it been in the last four years that you've had that opportunity do you think?
JULI INKSTER: Well, considering I didn't know where my last win was, I know I'm not going to remember when I had a chance to break the record. So I don't know.
I mean, you know, last year in Malaysia I finished second. You know, I have to apologize, I'm really bad on that stat. So you know, I've had some chances, but we'll see.

Q. What would that mean to you?
JULI INKSTER: Not a lot. A win would mean a lot. Just being the oldest player to win doesn't really mean that much, but winning out here would mean a lot.

Q. Why do you think you're able to compete as well as you can at this level continually?
JULI INKSTER: You guys are asking some really tough questions. I don't know. I guess because I still love the game. I still practice. I still work at it. I keep myself in pretty good shape.
You know, it's not like I'm 80. (Laughs). You know, I'm 50. And I know, I'm competing against 20, 25-year-olds, but I'm sure I could beat half of them on a treadmill. (Laughs).
So I don't know. To me it's not about me against them, you know, it's me -- you know, I try to compete against the golf course, and if I happen to beat some of the young pups, then I do. But it's not like I go out there and say I'm going to beat the 20-year-olds today.

Q. You have to be a little bit of a hero, though, to the older fans. I'm guessing you're hearing some comments.
JULI INKSTER: Oh, yeah, yeah. All the gray hairs love me, so it's great. It's good. I mean I've played in Phoenix forever. I mean since 1984 it was my first year, and you know, I've played in Phoenix every year we've had a tournament here, and you hope playing that many years you can get a little bit of a following. And you know, it's nice. On No. 1 we had a nice group following us, and I appreciate that. I mean I think that's great.

Q. When this event was first proposed, you wanted to know more about it, you had questions about it. How do you feel about the idea now?
JULI INKSTER: Well, let's see. It's kind of hard to put this -- I mean I think Mike has a good idea. You know, I just -- I just think it's hard for us as professional golfers to play for free.
You know, we only have a certain amount of tournaments, and this is what we do for a living, but you know, we're going to just see how it goes.
It's different. It's definitely different mentality out there. I mean I came in for a nine-hole practice round, played nine-hole Pro Am, and away we go. You know, I think it has a lot of good things about it, and I think it has some things that could be tweaked.

Q. Does it need part of the purse to be paid to the players?
JULI INKSTER: Well, I think -- I hate to say it, the people that lose out the most on this are the caddies. I mean the caddies, they only work a certain amount of weeks, too, and you know, if your boss is getting zero, you're pretty much getting zero, too. So I think we gotta find a way to make it financially good for them.
And you know, I don't know. I mean, you know, I think -- if I actually did win this and able to give the whole purse to charity, I think I'd feel pretty good about it, I mean, but I wouldn't want to do it every week. (Laughs).

Q. Would it be easier if there were more domestic opportunities?
JULI INKSTER: Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean definitely. I think, you know, if we had another six, seven, eight more domestic opportunities, I think it would be great.
But I also think it's important for myself and for some of the top players to play, because I do think it's, one, we're supporting our commissioner. We're supporting RR Donnelly, and we're supporting the LPGA Founders, and I do think it's important that we're here to play.

Q. Juli, Ron wrote a very interesting piece this week in Golf World about the PGA TOUR taking some kind of role in the LPGA's future, and also he mentioned in that that the old guard of the LPGA kind of fought that kind of a merger. I was just curious as to what your thoughts about the PGA TOUR taking over the LPGA would be.
JULI INKSTER: Well, you know, I think in these financial times, I think -- I'm not so sure -- I think it would be probably a good idea. I think the old guards would be -- you know, they never wanted to be a back seat to the PGA TOUR. You know, they didn't want it the PGA TOUR and then the Champions Tour, the Nationwide Tour and then the LPGA Tour. I think they always fought against that, that they could stand on their own.
With the financial times, and I have to say, the LPGA has the global connection. I mean we do, and I think the PGA TOUR wants that. So I mean you put Frick and Frack together, you might make something, you know. It's really not that bad of an idea.

Q. One more thing about the schedule. With so few domestic opportunities, it's really hard for young blood and fresh faces to break in right now, isn't it?
JULI INKSTER: Oh, I know. Pat Hurst and I were talking about my first tournament as a rookie, I played in High Point, North Carolina, and I think I finished like, I don't know, 15th or something like that and I won like, I don't know, $2,800. And I thought I was rich, you know. It kind of got me going for the whole year, and I didn't have to have sponsors and da, da, da, da.
And you know, it's hard, your first tournament ever and you're not going to get any money. And it's tough. I mean it's like the first two tournaments are only 60 players, and you know, really the top players from last year, so all of a sudden those top players from last year already have a head start. And then we have this tournament and then we have next week and then we have Dinah. So not everybody is in Dinah. Then we have next week. So it's really hard.
I mean I do feel for them, but the way it's going, it's kind of going, you know, performance-based. You gotta play well, and you gotta play well quick. You know, you really don't have the luxury of coming out here and trying to feel your way out and plod away. You gotta come out here and you gotta be ready to play.

Q. Who are you playing for this week for charity?
JULI INKSTER: You know, that's a good question. There's a couple of them, there's a food bank in San Jose and a homeless shelter in San Jose that I'm going to probably do. We were trying to see if we could do two. I don't know why you couldn't do ten. But you know, I just think it's important.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Juli.
JULI INKSTER: Thank you.

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